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Monday, August 29, 2016

Show Me the Money!

By: J.T. Evans

We recently had a member get approached by a publisher with
a request for $4,000 to publish her short story. To be more clear: the
publisher wanted the author to pay them.

This is not how the publishing industry is supposed to work.
Money should flow toward the author of the work, with a few exceptions.
I'll cover these exceptions at the end of the article.

The practice of the author paying for the privilege of
getting his or her work printed via a publisher is called "vanity publication."
It preys on the author's vanity and desire to see their word in print. Many
"green" authors fall victim to the urge to get their words printed,
and making a naïve move is something we're trying to get folks to avoid.

The practice of requiring the author to pay money is
entirely predatory and abusive. When an author is approached with a deal along
these lines, they should not walk away…they should run away.

There are a few resources online to check out publishers if
there are questionable practices going on. Some of them are:

The practice of requesting money from an author is not limited
to these nefarious publishing houses. Disreputable agents (who are rare)
may require their clients to pay "editorial fees" or "marketing
fees" to them for development of their work. This is not how agents should
work. Whether or not the agent does development work on a piece before submitting
to publishers is up to the agent, the author, and their relationship. However,
the agent should not charge the author for these efforts. The agent should only
collect their agreed-upon percentage when the author receives payment from the
publisher.

If a deal with a publisher or agent comes across your desk,
I highly recommend hiring an independent attorney who specializes in
intellectual property rights to review the contract before signing away.

It's a great thing to receive a contract! However, take a
day or three to sit back, breathe, consider the contract, and get in touch with
an attorney before moving forward.

At the start of this article, I mentioned some exceptions to
the "money flows toward the author" rule. If you are self-publishing,
then hiring a professional editor, cover artist, layout expert, marketing guru,
and other masters that will make your book better will cost you money. However,
these folks are ones who you approach and hire on your own. They work for you
in their area of specialty.

Like with self-publishing, if you are chasing down the
traditional publishing deal, hiring a professional editor to assist you in
polishing your work before submitting to agents and editors is not a bad idea
if you can afford it. Again, this has a cost and will cause money to "flow
away" from you, but this is entirely your choice and within your control.

Unfortunately, Pikes Peak Writers doesn't have an attorney
on staff or within our volunteer ranks, so we can't offer specific legal advice
on contracts. Regardless of our inability to offer legal advice, we can at
least point out areas where contracts can be abusive or predatory toward our
fellow authors.

Best of luck with your work, and happy writing!

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Pikes Peak Writers

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